FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Christy Garland, director of the film What Walaa Wants.

Documentarist Christy Garland finished editing What Walaa Wants in January 2018 after spending 6 years since 2012, following the life of Walaa Khaled Fawzy Tanji, a Palestinian girl whose dream was to be a policewoman in the Palestinian Security Forces . Christy met Walaa when she was 15 and followed her life for years to show her strength, her ability to break all the rules only to harshly learn, that sometimes there are some rules one needs to follow anyhow. At the 68th Berlinale where What Walaa Wants is premiering in the Generation section, Christy tells FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti how difficult it was for Walaa to be followed around for so much time and in every step of her life but the result was a sort of a diary where Walaa was able to see her change into a strong woman.

What Walaa Wants:  Raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank while her mother was in prison, Walaa dreams of being a policewoman, wearing a uniform, avoiding marriage, and earning a salary. Despite discouragement from her family, even from her beloved brother Mohammed, Walaa applies – and gets in. But her own rebellious behavior and a complicated relationship with her mother are a challenge, as are the circumstances under which she lives. Following Walaa from 15 to 21, with an intimate POV and the exuberant energy of its subject, this first-ever look inside the Palestinian police academy brings us the story of a young woman navigating formidable obstacles, learning which rules to break and which to follow, and disproving the negative predictions from her surroundings and the world at large.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Christy Garland – What Walaa Wants #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Léonore Ekstrand, actress of the film The Real Estate.

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti is joined by Léonore Ekstrand, the ultimate protagonist of The Real Estate, a film directed by Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson, in competition at the 68° Berlinale. Leonore had already worked with both the directors in different films and this was for them the perfect occasion to work all together. There would be no film without Léonore as The Real Estate was conceived around the actress, her irreverent character. Nojet is a spoiled woman, she’s extreme, sensual, rude, violent, crazy, kind and yet it is difficult not to empathize with her. As she’s portraying a strong female character on screen, Léonore Ekstrand comments on the effects of the MeToo movement in the cinema world.

The Real Estate:  After a life of luxury financed by her father, 68-year-old Nojet inherits one of his apartment buildings in Stockholm’s city centre. This lady of leisure returns home from a Spanish island, but instead of a well-organised state of affairs, she finds total chaos. Her half-brother and his son, who is not averse to hitting the bottle and other excesses, have seriously neglected their job as estate caretakers. The building is in a wretched state and full of tenants without a single legal contract between them. Nojet seeks advice from her old friend Lex, the family lawyer-cum-music producer who is in the throes of organising a gala for homeless people. He proposes selling the building to an estate agent. The latter shows an interest at first, but Nojet’s supposedly future-proof inheritance is increasingly proving to be something of a curse. At the heart of The Real Estate is a woman who is still living the good life of yesteryear and just doesn’t want the party to end. The situation in which Nojet now finds herself feels, to her, like a surreal nightmare. She plays the role of a businesswoman and femme fatale and ends up becoming a warrior in her own cause.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Léonore Ekstrand – The Real Estate #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson, directors of the film The Real Estate.

There would be no The Real Estate without Léonore Ekstrand as not even Meryl Streep could manage to play the protagonist better than her. This is the first comment directors Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson share on their first film together, in competition at the 68th Berlinale. The film is not only about this spoiled and extreme anti-heroine. It is grotesque, it is surreal but at the same time it depicts something very real that is the real estate situation in Sweden as the title suggests. Even if the film comes in a moment in which there are more and more films focusing on strong female protagonists, the directors reveal that in their case, it’s just a coincidence as they’ve always wanted to work together and they’ve always wanted to try and find a film project that could involve Léonore Ekstrand.

The Real Estate:  After a life of luxury financed by her father, 68-year-old Nojet inherits one of his apartment buildings in Stockholm’s city centre. This lady of leisure returns home from a Spanish island, but instead of a well-organised state of affairs, she finds total chaos. Her half-brother and his son, who is not averse to hitting the bottle and other excesses, have seriously neglected their job as estate caretakers. The building is in a wretched state and full of tenants without a single legal contract between them. Nojet seeks advice from her old friend Lex, the family lawyer-cum-music producer who is in the throes of organising a gala for homeless people. He proposes selling the building to an estate agent. The latter shows an interest at first, but Nojet’s supposedly future-proof inheritance is increasingly proving to be something of a curse. At the heart of The Real Estate is a woman who is still living the good life of yesteryear and just doesn’t want the party to end. The situation in which Nojet now finds herself feels, to her, like a surreal nightmare. She plays the role of a businesswoman and femme fatale and ends up becoming a warrior in her own cause.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Axel Petersén, Måns Månsson – The Real Estate #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Elise Jalladeau, General Director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

Elise Jalladeau, the Thessaloniki Festival director, tells us about the joy of having celebrated TDF’s 20th birthday, her view on documentary filmmaking, education and the role of a film festival in this day and age.

To discover more about the Festival, click here.

The post Elise Jalladeau #TDF20 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Drew Xanthopoulos, director of the film The Sensitives.

Drew Xanthopoulos talks to us about the heartfelt European premiere of his latest film The Sensitives, at TDF20 in the Habitat section. Dealing with a unique topic, Xanthopoulos manages to paint a picture that invites us to sink deeply into its composition. Its visceral aesthetics fully represent the director’s blood and tears that were shed to finish this film. The result is a powerful study on family, fear, and ultimately being part of something, no matter what.

The Sensitives:  For the increasing number of people who are suffering from environmental illnesses, the modern world is full of unseen threats. Pesticides, perfumes, cell phones—any of these can send a “sensitive” into a debilitating downward spiral. Stunningly cinematic, The Sensitives, documents three families struggling with these issues. Joe, too sick to care for himself, faces an impossible choice: an uncertain future with his ever-burdened family or the lure of a safe community built for sensitives like him, far away. Twin brothers Sam and Nathan live with their mother, Karen, inside a sterilized safe home they haven’t left in years but a tragedy causes upheaval and uprooting in their fragile existence. And Susie, who decamped from society for a remote desert homestead decades ago, has finally found relief but contemplates leaving to advocate for awareness, risking her own health. Shot over three years, the film captures the hope and humanity that makes the marginalized undeniably relatable.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Drew Xanthopoulos – The Sensitives #TDF20 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Christine Franz, director of the film Bunch of Kunst.

We were lucky to have Christine Franz taking the journalist hat off for a couple of years to then embark on the journey of making Bunch of Kunst: a Film about Sleaford Mods. Franz immersed herself in the world of the one of a kind band hailing from Nottingham, that, gig after gig, beer after beer took the music scene by its throat and shook things up for many. The result is a riotous doc that restores faith in many music and film lovers, while depicting an intimate and complex portrait of 3 middle-aged men, who found success only after embracing their defeat. Long live Sleaford Mods.

Bunch of Kunst: “Young people are signing major record deals and they just sing about love. I’m a great believer of love. But for fuck’s sake, there’s a lot going on. Who wants to hear that if you are on £15 a week? And you turn the telly on and some fucker is spouting on about love”, says singer Jason Williamson. Thanks to their sweary rants about modern England, Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods have been called “The Voice of Britain” by their fans, “Britain’s angriest band” by the Guardian and “The world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band” by Iggy Pop. Jason Williamson, a former chicken factory worker, benefits adviser and father of two, his band mate, beatmaker Andrew Fearn, and their manager Steve Underwood, avant-garde bedroom label owner and former bus driver, have won over fans with their brutally honest lyrics and DIY ethos. Christine Franz’s official documentary feature, follows them on their two-year journey from Sherwood to chart success. Bunch of Kunst tells the story of three guys taking on the music business on their own terms.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Christine Franz – Bunch of Kunst #TDF20 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Hans Block, director of the film The Cleaners.

Hans Block talks to us about his documentary feature The Cleaners at TDF20. A work of outstanding maturity for a first film, The Cleaners  exposes the dark and secreted world behind the content moderators, people employed by companies that are at the service of the world’s media giants. By kneading a complex and yet balanced network of topics and issues, Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck show us the effect of Social Media’s hegemonic power on today’s world.

The Cleaners: When you post something on the web, can you be sure it stays there? Entering a hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the Internet rids itself of what it doesn’t like. Reminding us of the shared social vision of a global village and its degeneration into a web of fake news and radicalisation, the film charts the rise and fall of social media’s utopian ideology.

The post Hans Block – The Cleaners #TDF20 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Beatrice Behn and Renè Gebhardt, directors of the film The Artist and The Pervert.

Beatrice Behn and Renè Gebhardt packed their things, got a ticket to New York, and spent a year of their lives witnessing the relationship between the composer George Friedrich Haas and the writer, performer and force of nature Mollena Williams-Haas. She is his slave, his muse, they are both feminists and everything works beautifully. They embody the living proof that as long as there is respect, consent and freedom, everyone can be and do whatever they want. A liberating watch, and an eye opener for conservatives, textbook theorists and radical thinkers alike.

The Artist and The Pervert: Georg Friedrich Haas is arguably the most important living composer of symphonic music, but also a descendant of a Nazi family. His wife, whom he met through the dating site “OkCupid”, is a African American kink educator. Their deep relationship is based on an open, yet controversial role-playing game between a white male master and a black female slave. This ground-breaking film documents their lives between perversion, art, love, and radical self-determination.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Beatrice Behn, Renè Gebhardt – The Artist and The Pervert #TDF20 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Martin Sulik, director of the film The Intrepreter.

Martin Sulik tells us about his film, a classic but intense trip back to through the memories of the Nazi era, from two old men, a Jew who suffered the loss of his family through the hands of the father of the other, who did not want to come to terms with his father’s past, until now. Urgent and compelling, a film that tells us about the incredible revisions of this recent past made by some governments and institutions in Slovakia, but not only there.

The Intrepreter:  An 80-year-old translator, Ali Ungar, comes across a book written by a former SS officer recounting his war experiences in Slovakia. Ali realises that one of the chapters may well describe his own parents’ execution. And so, armed with a pistol, he sets off to Vienna to look for the SS man and take his revenge. But once there, the only person he encounters is the man’s 70-year-old son Georg, a former teacher who has spent his whole life avoiding his father and suffering from an addiction to alcohol. The translator’s visit arouses Georg’s curiosity and he decides to invite Ali on a trip through Slovakia. But whilst Georg is basically out to have a good time, Ali is hoping to find out how his parents really died. Gradually, these two very different men begin to warm to each other and together, they discover a country that would prefer to forget about its past. Oscillating between comedy and tragedy, Martin Sulík’s road movie focuses on two old men weighed down by the unresolved conflicts that have plagued their lives who are now trying to free themselves from this oppressive burden. Jirí Menzel plays the role of the gloomy and worldly-wise Ali, Peter Simonischek is the maverick Georg.

The post Martin Sulik – The Intrepreter #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Lav Diaz, director of the film Season Of The Devil.

There’s no international film festival without Lav Diaz, the prolific Filipino director who already won a Golden Lion at the 2017 edition of the Venice Film Festival. After presenting Lullaby to the sorrowful mystery at the Berlinale last year, Diaz is back on FRED and at the Festival to present, in competition, his latest film Season Of The Devil, a musical, a rock opera inspired by real events and real people set in the darkest period of Philippine history, the 70’s. Lav Diaz reminds us that every period or historical film is a metaphor to describe the present we’re living in Europe and in the world. The devil of the title or the devils in general are the demagogues who rule so many countries now, like the new government in the Philippines. The director also reveals that he chose to direct a musical because of his first love, music. Lav Diaz was indeed a musician and singer during high school.

Season Of The Devil:  In the late 70s, a military-controlled militia gang terrorizes a remote village in the Philippines. The terror inflicted on citizens is not just corporal, but intensely psychological as well. They are constantly fed apocryphal tales about the village leader. A few souls fight, refusing to give up. Poet, teacher and activist Hugo Haniway desperately searches for the truth about his wife’s disappearance… In award-winning director Lav Diaz’s new film, the narrative and characters are a composite of real events and people from the period. It’s a love story set in the darkest period of Philippine history, the Marcos Dictatorship. Season Of The Devil is a Filipino rock opera with music and lyrics by Lav Diaz.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Lav Diaz – Season Of The Devil #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.